During the September 1944 Quebec Conference, Winston
Churchill proposed that once Germany was defeated and the Allied attention
turned towards the defeat of Japan. He proposed to transfer a large portion of
Bomber Command or some 500 to 1000 heavy bombers to the Pacific theatre. The
proposal was quickly accepted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

By late 1944, victory was more a matter of time
rather than a question of being achieved and the decisions was made on 20
October 1944 to form a very large bomber force code named “Tiger Force”

Initially
consisting of twenty-two squadron’s formed into three bomber groups. One Royal
Air Force (RAF), one Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and one contain squadrons
from the Royal Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Royal New Zealand
Air Force (RNZAF) and South African Air Force (SAAF). The force was reduced to
ten bomber squadron in two groups consisting of RAF and RCAF squadron’s and was
later revised to include only eight squadron’s.

Tiger
Force was to the based on Okinawa and would use Avro Lancaster’s, the newly
arriving Avro Lincoln’s and Consolidated Liberator’s. Fighter escort duties were
to be supplied by US Far East Air Force units and the Australian First Tactical
Air Force as well as other Commonwealth units.

Aircraft marking for the Avro Lancaster and Lincoln’s was to be white upper-surfaces with black
undersides. All Tiger Force was to be cancelled before being deployed this
colour scheme was used on many RAF post-war Lancaster’s and
Lincolns.

With the
American bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki using Atom Bombs, Japan’s surrender
followed shortly afterwards on 2 September 1945. But 5 September 1945 the
Canadian Tiger Force Units, who had yet to begin training, received disbandment
orders, while the RAF units were to remained on standby until they too received
disbandment orders on 31 October 1945.

It
is interesting to note that this initial list for No. 6 Group, RCAF shows
Lancaster’s as Mk. BI (FE) and BVII (FE) and also included Lincoln BII’s. When
in fact all units forming in Canada were made up of Lancaster’s that had been
flown back to Canada and were in fact Canadian made Lancaster Mk.X. (see
below).

CANADA’s Lancaster’s
contribution to Tiger Force

The
Canadian group, contained No’s 661, 662, 663 and 663 (Heavy Bomber) Wings and
was to be equipped with aircraft and personnel coming directly from squadron’s
already operating in England within No. 6 Group, RCAF.

As
soon as formation orders had been issued, the Canadian squadrons were
re-equipped with Canadian built Lancaster Mk.X’s from the FM and KB serial
number series. These aircraft, which had been built at the Victory Aircraft
Production in Malton, Ontario, had been steadily arriving in England since mid
1944; and would allow all of the squadron’s to operate the same Lancaster
variant.

In
total 141 Lancaster Mk.X’s were allocated to Tiger force, however with the
unforeseen disbandment Tiger Force the Canadian Government was faced with an
interesting problem. Since the original intention was for the RCAF units to be
re-equipped with Canadian built Avro Lincolns as soon as these aircraft could be
made available. The Lancaster Mk.X’s, although Canadian made, had been
transferred to RAF ownership and for several months after disbandment;
Canadian built aircraft were being operated in Canada, by the RCAF, but did not
belong to the Canadian government. The problem was resolved by late 1945 or
early 1946 when ownership of the Canadian made Lancaster’s which had been
returned to Canada were returned to the Canadian Government ownership, Even so
the Lancaster maintained their RAF serial numbers.

With no requirement for a heavy bomber force the
Canadian Government decided to place hundreds of Lancaster aircraft into
long-term storage, in various disused air based in Eastern Canada. However after
several years it was realised that the damp weather environment was not best
suited for long term aircraft storage.

The decision was then made to relocate the stored
Lancaster’s a drier climate which would be more indicative for aircraft storage.
This so called ideal location was determined to be in the Western Canada prairie
Province Alberta, where several closed British Commonwealth Air Training Plan
(BCATP) stations were allocated for this task. By the late 1940, many of the
Lancaster’s had been flown out to Alberta and were to remain there until the
early 1950’s

They force would likely have remained in storage,
awaiting their final date to be scrapped, if increasing international tensions
between the East and West had not reached point where the Canadian Government
ordered the RCAF to activate seventy Lancaster’s and modify them for a variety
of roles including Maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare.

Canadian Lancaster’s were also to be modified by
the Canadian Government for Aerial Reconnaissance, Air-Sea Rescue, Navigational
Training, Photo-Reconnaissance and civilian transport duties the later as Avro
Lancastrians.